(Note: The entry below was written by Geoff York of the WWF. Geoff’s bio is at the end of this article.)
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live for a time on the Arctic tundra surrounded by polar bears who are awaiting the return of winter sea ice? Have you ever considered living for several days in a large bus-like vehicle that stands six feet off the ground and awaking to northern lights or a curious white furry face staring into your “bedroom” window?
Neither had I. However, this is exactly what I did for 10 days this autumn in Churchill, Manitoba. Following the invitation of Polar Bears International (PBI), a new conservation partner with WWF, I travelled to Hudson Bay and participated in a series of international outreach and education opportunities.
There are no roads to this far northern town, so you have to fly via small aircraft or take a very long and slow train. Three hours later, my flight touches down on the small airstrip next to Hudson Bay. The winds are blowing 50 knots and gusting to 70. Sparse snow is scattered across the tundra landscape and the small ponds are just starting to freeze. I have a few hours to arrange my gear and grab some lunch before heading out to meet the rest of my team on PBI’s Buggy One and the Tundra Buggy® Lodge.
The “Lodge” is actually a series of buggy cars joined together, a uniquely Northern train. It is located on the shore of the Bay about 20 miles outside of Churchill. The trip out takes about an hour by the slow moving Tundra Buggy® vehicles- specially designed and standing over six feet off the ground with large wheels for the rocky trails. As luck would have it, a helicopter was heading out the evening I arrived with space for one more passenger. A short flight later we touched down at PBI’s Buggy One- a customized Tundra Buggy® turned mobile production studio designed to deliver real time HD video, web casting, and video conferencing for education and outreach on polar bear conservation.
WWF, PBI and other partners, including North America’s top polar bear researchers and conservationists, joined together this year to report on climate change, its impacts to the Arctic, and the subsequent impacts on polar bears. During my stay we conducted video conference calls to thousands of people across North America. We also partnered with the Apple Learning Interchange and the “Rolling on the Tundra” exhibit to conduct a series of webcasts which at last count had received over 7,000 hits!
As the polar bear viewing capitol of the world and the epicenter of climate change impacts on polar bears, Hudson Bay is the ideal backdrop for these public science and policy discussions. Polar bears gather every year in October and November along the shoreline of Hudson Bay while they wait for the bay to freeze.
The polar bears in this part of the world are unique in that they have been onshore since early summer. Most of the world’s polar bears remain with the retreating ice pack and do not come ashore. In Hudson Bay the sea ice melts completely each summer forcing the bears to shore where they spend 4-9 months fasting. The bears rely on the sea ice returning to resume hunting their primary prey- ice seals. Trouble is, the ice is freezing later each year and is also melting earlier each spring.
The situation in Hudson Bay is clear- the climate is warming, the sea ice is rapidly melting, and as a result these polar bears have lost five weeks of feeding time in the last 20 years. Adult bears are returning to shore in poorer condition, the females are having fewer cubs, and fewer cubs are surviving to adulthood. Research from the Canadian Wildlife Service documents an average decline of over one percent per year for the Hudson Bay population (a staggering 22% decline since 1987). With less and less time on the sea ice, this iconic group of polar bears is in significant trouble.
Our mission in Churchill was twofold: alert people that higher temperatures are having a direct and harmful effect not only on polar bears in Hudson Bay, but on populations across the Arctic; and let them know they could do something about the situation. The messages from the Arctic are grim, but it is important people realize it is not too late to reverse these trends.
Through sharing the troubles facing polar bears, we engaged and encouraged people to join us in efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Global warming is a problem of enormous reach and significance to every living thing in this world. The issues are so big and complex that we sometimes think there is nothing we can do. The exact opposite is true. It is only through personal leadership and individual action that we can collectively make a difference. It is only through leading by example in reducing our energy use, in becoming smarter consumers, in voting with our feet and dollars that we can truly become the change the world desperately needs. It is only through personal action and grassroots leadership that we will create a chain reaction from the local to regional to national to global scale that will ultimately decarbonize our economies and create the conditions needed for a sustainable and living planet
Living with polar bears in Hudson Bay is transformative. One cannot leave the experience without being impacted by seeing these magnificent animals interact with one another and with their environment. We simply must do everything we can to turn down the world’s thermostat and give the ice and the bears a fighting chance. As the Arctic acts to regulate and cool the rest of the world, we also need to save the sea ice to save ourselves.
Geoff York Biographical Information:
Geoff York recently joined WWF as the Arctic Program polar bear conservation coordinator and is currently based in the WWF Alaska field office. In this role he is responsible for WWF’s circumpolar polar bear conservation efforts. Geoff completed his BA from the University of Notre Dame and has lived in Alaska since 1990 when he came north to pursue a Master’s degree in science/biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He has 12 years of field experience in the Arctic, most recently as a Biologist and Program Manager for the U.S. Geological Survey’s Polar Bear Project, the leading polar bear research team in the U.S. His work included leading field efforts in the capture and handling of 100s of bears, tagging them, collecting a variety of biological samples to assess disease and health-related parameters, and collaring adult females with radio telemetry devices to tracking the bears’ movements on sea ice. Geoff also led development of Infrared (FLIR) detection techniques for locating maternal dens remotely and pioneered work with radio frequency identification tagging of bears while at the USGS.
